LeBron calls Popovich 'the greatest coach of all time'
LeBron James has high praise for the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich.
"I think he's the greatest coach of all time," James told Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The Cleveland Cavaliers star has a long history with the Spurs franchise that dates back to a decade ago when The King met Popovich's Spurs in James' first NBA Finals. Pop and company got the better of the 22-year-old James and the Cavs that season, sweeping them in four games, while holding him to 35 percent shooting. Since then, the two have met twice more on the world's biggest basketball stage and have split the results. James and his Miami Heat got the best of Tim Duncan and crew in 2013, then one year later, the Spurs dismantled the Heat en route to Popovich's fifth title in six chances.
The sustainability of success, and the ability to adapt are two things James finds most impressive about the NBA's longest tenured coach.
"To be able to do what he's done where the basketball has changed so much and he's been able to have a growth mindset and change with the game (is impressive)," James said. "We went from a league where it was inside out, where every time you came down it was throw it to the big, and then it goes to every time down pick-and-roll, and then it goes to every time down shoot a three.
"Pop has been able to adjust every single time and still, for some odd reason, keep those guys under the radar. I don't understand it."